If the Supreme Court rejects Apple’s appeal, Apple’s liability finding would be considered final under a 2014 settlement with 33 states and a consumer class, triggering $400 million in consumer rebates.

“For nearly 300 years, since shortly after the birth of copyright in England in 1710, courts have recognized that, in certain circumstances, giving authors absolute control over all copying from their works would tend in some circumstances to limit, rather than expand, public knowledge,” writes the judge in his decision.

“The purpose of the copying is highly transformative, the public display of text is limited, and the revelations do not provide a significant market substitute for the protected aspects of the originals,” Judge Pierre N. Leval of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote, explaining the court’s decision.

Watchman is nowhere near as good a novel as Mockingbird, but it might prove an equally significant one, if it helps us look to history for our lessons, rather than to our consoling, childish, whitewashed fables.

Publishers Weekly reports that Apple has lost its appeal in the long-running battle over whether it, and others, conspried to fix ebook prices. Assuming the decision stands, Apple will have to pay out over 400 million dollars to consumers.